To say their depth is only exceeded by Canada, I think, is stretching it too far. In my opinion, Russia has much better depth, you just need to expand your horizons past the NHL. Sweden and Finland could also match up very well with them in terms of depth, although here I'm not familiar enough to make a judgement call.

It's funny because when you compare most hockey fans opinions vs facts and figures you get the same thing over and over. Russia is by far the most overrated hockey country and the US is by far the most underrated. The US has roughly 5 times more kids playing hockey than Russia, roughly 5 times more arenas and before the KHL started had approximately 5 times more NHLers than Russia. Also the US has made it to the finals in 4 of the last 7 major mens tournaments, whereas Russia has only made it to the finals once in that period.

There are a whole bunch of reasons as to why the perceptions of Russia's greatness and the US's weakness exist but they are much more myth than reality.